Ballad of a Paralysed Citizen

I'm paralysed and things could change for you as well
You're not so bad off now, you can move anything you need
I'm not this way because of an emergency I caused
At seventeen, a guard perched above the chlorine floor
When I saw a hand raise up from just beneath the air
A frantic move for help, I made an instant judgment call

Dive
I arched my feet to dive
I broke the elemental line
To save a child
Dive
Into the shallow floor
The bottom scraped my palms
And compressed my spine

Now I'm paralysed while they just hope to make amends
The family and the kid who faked the drowning incident
I've felt the hand of God and that's the last thing that I felt
At all below my back, I've lost the faith I thought I had

Dive
I arched my feet to dive
I broke the elemental line
To save a child
Dive
Into the shallow floor
The bottom scraped my palms
And compressed my spine